Russian historian detained at Vilnius airport

VILNIUS, August 14, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian historian and writer Alexander Dyukov, who is director of the Historical Memory Foundation, was detained at the Vilnius international airport on Wednesday on grounds his name was on the list of persons banned from entry to Lithuania.

Dyukov told Itar-Tass over the phone he had no idea why his name had been put on that blacklist. “I deal with history and am far from politics. My interests are purely scholarly - I study the 20th century history,” he said.

“They gave me a protocol saying I had been put on the list of people banned from entry to Lithuania,” he went on, adding he did not know what had been behind this move of the Lithuanian authorities.

Dyukov said he planned to change his air tickets and leave for Moscow on August 15.

He arrived in the Lithuanian capital city to present his book On the Eve of the Holocaust planned for Thursday. The presentation was planned to be held at the premises of a news agency. Organizers also planned to hold a conference on that topic.